This
review of the first edition appeared in White Crane Journal #62, Fall
2004

Back in the mid-80s, when I was in private practice as a gay
psychotherapist, I used to give clients a copy of Scott Peck’s The
Road Less Traveled after
their first session. The book very nicely described issues that
regularly come up in therapy by recounting case-histories of Peck’s
clients and, more importantly, presented how the psychotherapeutic
process of talking over one’s personal life history can dramatically
change patterns that have proved painful and unfulfilling. Peck focused
on the distinction between “neurosis” and “character disorder” as
unifying theme of all the case histories, and so of his description of
healthy personality functioning. (He also explained why paying the
therapist was an essential part of the healing process—something every
therapist in private practice has to confront.)

Reading about other people’s psychological patterns
and life problems—and especially how they solved them—in itself can be
amazingly healing, and can certainly provide motivation for making
changes for oneself.

I loved Scott Peck’s book (it helped me through a
“midlife crisis” of my own). I was happy to give it to prospective
clients to get them started on their own healing journey down that
“road less taken” to psychological insight and self-understanding.

Well, if I were in back in practice today, I’d buy a
case of Joe Kort’s 10 Smart Things and start passing them out!

Though more succinct and to the point—and less
quasi-religious—than Peck, Kort does precisely the same thing. Through
recounting case-histories of clients he has seen in his 16-year
psychotherapy practice, Kort presents a list of ten maxims for the
successful gay life. Much the way, Scott Peck focused on the
neurosis/character disorder axis, Joe Kort focuses his model of healthy
functioning on a closeted vs gay/sex obsessed axis. And, most
importantly, he offers the same kind of healing discussion that is
therapeutic in itself and that gives motivation and zeal for entering
therapy with a gay positive practitioner.

Kort’s 10 things are obvious, but bear articulation
and elucidation. The Ten Commandments of Moses are obvious too, but
inscribing them in stone made all the difference.

The book gets better and better as it goes along. I
found the chapter on “Therapy as Workout” to be the richest. Kort
defines the Gay and Lesbian Affirmative Psychotherapeutic approach,
describes the common life stages of gay men’s development (following
Erik Erikson’s familiar model mutatis mutandis), explains the concept
of transference, and demonstrates how self-examination fosters
wholeness and happiness.

Some of the chapters offer very specific how-to
advice, like a six-point list of symptoms of sexual addiction or a
twelve-point list of tips for successful dating. There’s an appealing
interweaving of Joe Kort’s own life story with his discussions of
clients’ stories and problems. The final chapter celebrates Kort’s own
long-term relationship in the process of arguing that long-term
relationships are much more prevalent and successful that commonly seen.

In the context of reviewing this book in White
Crane Journal,
I have to observe there is an 11th smart thing gay men can—and need
to—do for their happiness and fulfillment, and that is to “Understand
the nature of religion.” Kort discusses religion tangentially in the
process of describing gay men’s negative conditioning. He doesn’t go
the next step to explain how gay insight into the superstitious and
obsessive-compulsive side of religion can help free everybody, gay and
straight, to create a successful and modern personal “spirituality.”

This book is just what you’re looking for if you’re
thinking about making changes in your life or entering therapy, or if
you’re just wanting a little touch-up in your psychological functioning.
And—I know this sounds superficial, especially in
light of Kort’s various warnings about falling into pop-gay sex
obsession—the cover of the Alyson edition is graced with a handsome
photo of Joe Kort (looking a little like the recently deceased TV
personality, John Ritter). You’ll probably enjoy occasionally closing
the book and gazing at the cover, thinking how nice to have a sweet,
sensible, caring and realistically good-looking gay man for a
psycho-spiritual guide. And how generous of Joe to have made himself so!

There’s additional information on the book and the
10 Smart Things at joekort.com.

Reviewed by Toby
Johnson, author
of Gay
Spirituality: Gay Identity and the Transformation of Human Consciousness,
The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph
Campbell and other novels and books

Toby Johnson, PhDis
author of nine books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of
his
teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and
religious problems, four gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual
issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's
spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality and editor
of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness.

Johnson's book
GAY
SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of
Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His GAY
PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature
of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They
remain
in
print.

FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth
of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the
real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual
qualities of gay male consciousness.